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Create, Edit and Manage Tasks in Outlook


You perform many tasks in your daily life. In Outlook, a task is an activity that must be completed within a specified period of time and has a current status. The status of a task can be In Progress, Not Started, Waiting on Someone Else, Deferred, or Completed. Outlook provides the Task folder where you can create tasks and monitor their status.  

Create a Task
Edit a Task
Task Recurrence
Mark\ Task Complete
Insert Task in Email Message
Categorize Tasks
Assign Task to Others
Accept Assigned Tasks

Create a Task
  1. Click on Tasks in your Folder List or Navigational Pane (see How To View Folder List).
  2. Click on New on the Standard toolbar or select Actions…New Task to open the Task window
  3. The task window contains two tabs, Task and Details.
    1. Use the Task tab to enter the details about the tasks
      • Subject (this is what will show in your list of tasks)
      • Start and Due Date -- you can sort your tasks & taskpad view by Due Date so you know when you need to get something done.
      • Status (In Progress, Not Started, Waiting on Someone Else, Deferred, or Completed.
      • Priority of the task (you can have Outlook sort your tasks based on the priority you give them)
    2. Use the Details tab to enter details such as total work estimated, actual time taken, and expenses incurred to complete a task
      • Verify the reminder is checked. This indicates that you have set a reminder for the task.
      • In the Reminder date list, verify that the due date appears. This indicates the date on which the reminder will appear.
  4. Click Save & Close on the Standard toolbar to save the tas

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Edit a Task

 

You can change information about the tasks, such as Status, Due Date, and % Complete by double-clicking the task to open it. Edit the information.  
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Task Recurrence

 

If you create a task that you perform on a regular basis, you can use the recurrence feature.
  1. Create a task (refer to above steps)
  2. Click the recurrence button on the standard toolbar
  3. Specify the options for recurrence pattern and range of recurrence and click OK.
  4. Click Save and Close button on the Standard toolbar to save the task

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Mark a Task as Complete

 

You can change the status of a task at any time. There are 3 ways to mark a task as complete.

  1. Open the task and Enter 100 in the % Complete field
  2. Open the task and select Completed in the Status field
  3. In the Folder Contents list, right-click and choose Mark Complete from the shortcut menu.

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Insert tasks in mail messages

 

You can insert any existing Outlook item such as a message, task, or an appointment into an email message. This saves the time of having to retype the information in that item into the message.

In your email message, place the insertion point at the location where you want to insert the task

  1. Click the drop-down arrow on the Insert File button (paper clip icon) and choose Item to open the Insert Item dialog box.
  2. From the Look in list, select tasks
  3. From the Items list, select the task you want to insert in the message
  4. Under Insert as, select the way in which you want to insert the task in a message
  5. Click OK.

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Categorize Tasks

 

After creating tasks, you might want to categorize them to keep all the related tasks together. After you have categorized tasks, you can use the By Category view to show all the tasks in the same category grouped together. You can easily locate a specific task.
  1. Open a task window (either a new or an existing one)
  2. Click the Categories button (lower right-hand corner of window) to open dialog box.
  3. Choose one of the existing categories or click Master Category List button to create one of your own categories.

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Assigning Tasks to Others

 

You can assign a task to a team member as long as you're on the Exchange Server
  1. Create a task
  2. Click Assign Task on the Standard toolbar.
  3. In the To box, enter the email address of the person to whom you assign the task.
  4. Check the Keep an updated copy of this task on my task list option, if you want to keep a copy of the task with you.
  5. You can click the Send me a status report when the task is complete option to request the status report.

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Accept Assigned Tasks

 

When you assign a task to an individual, they can either accept or reject the task request. If they accept the task request, the task is no longer yours. When someone accepts or rejects the task, a message appears in your Inbox stating that the individual has accepted or rejected the task.

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updated 4-070-04 phs
Penn State University College of Agricultural Sciences